


From Foam to Heaven

by sparklight



Series: Beginnings [3]
Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Genre: First Kiss, Growing Up, Multi, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:12:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26861938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklight/pseuds/sparklight
Summary: Rising from sky and ocean, young Aphrodite was never a babe among the waves, protected from all ills. But like all young things, she still has to grow up, choose an island for her own, and ascend to Olympos.
Relationships: Amphitrite/Aphrodite (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Aphrodite/Nerites (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Series: Beginnings [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930411
Kudos: 7





	From Foam to Heaven

When great Kronos unmanned his father and threw those life-generating parts of him away, cosmic eros was present - how could it not be, with such a great, terrible loss, so much potential discarded? The sea, though seemingly less fruitful than the vast, dark earth, caught Ouranos' genitals, and slowly in the froth, for these things grow less quickly when not done by the most usual means, divine essence percolated. The essence drew on cosmic eros, still lingering close by, and, lovingly held in the ocean's great womb, Aphrodite was born. Perhaps too close to cosmic eros - some tiny part of it was drawn inside of her, great goddess, and would lay quiescent until it was time. But those are thoughts and play for later, to bring forth earthly Eros from her love with brave war, for darling, future-crowned Aphrodite was young yet, playing in the waves she was born in.

Laughing, Aphrodite dove through the froth much like the dolphins she was swimming with were, following their leaps as they porpoised through the water, occasionally breaching. The air around her was scattered with a glittering spray of water and foam, light catching rainbows in the drops. The sun was high above her, the sky burnished blue and burned clear of any clouds. Every dip below the surface turned the world into a momentarily empty moment of cool blue, soothing and sweet, before goddess and pod broke the surface again. It had become as familiar as it was beloved, though she finally broke away from the pod to simply float across the surface, looking up at the sky. Swaying with the long, lazy waves as they rocked her, her long, dark hair like a seaweed halo radiating out around her.

Aphrodite knew there was more than this, that the world was vaster than the sea she'd grown to shape in, and she stared up at the sky, wondering where others might be. She wasn't yet tempted to leave her birth home, not even for company, but she couldn't say she wasn't terribly, awfully interested.

"What are you doing?"

Aphrodite gasped, loosing her concentration and promptly got dunked before she could kick herself above the surface again. Angrily flipping her long hair out of her face, she turned towards the intruder - and stopped. Any intent to lash out evaporated as she beheld the wide-eyed, sweetly pointed face, a shimmer to the tanned skin that matched the flickering play of light on water when watched from below. Maybe she'd let him get away with embarrassing her.

"You should _introduce yourself_ before questioning anyone, you know," Aphrodite huffed, splashing him and giggling when he seemed entirely taken by surprise and got drenched. Yes, she'd let him get away with it. That guileless, if slightly annoyed scrunch to his face as he blinked water out of his face was cute. His lashes were thick, and the drops caught in them sparkled like the glitter of sunlight on water, not at all like the smooth gleam of pearls. She hadn't thought she'd find anything as cute as herself, as pretty as the dolphins and as interesting as the many fish under the surface, not even the potential kin she had elsewhere, but this graceful boy, whoever he was, was proving her wrong.

"Nerites, son of old Nereus and venerable Doris, brother to Amphitrite," the boy said after a moment of eyeing her narrowly, but he dipped his head with easy grace, and Aphrodite was by now entirely mollified.

" _I_ am Aphrodite, daughter to Ouranos and nurtured by the sea herself! When I feel like it, I'll leave the sea and take my place among the other Deathless Ones in the sky and claim my honours, but for now I'm enjoying my home," Aphrodite proclaimed, hand over her narrow chest, dripping with pearls and seaweed, but not a stitch of clothing. "I haven't seen anyone else before now, where do you live?"

"Quite a distance from here, further north. Do you want to come see?" Nerites said, cocking his head so that his wavy dark hair spilled over his shoulder, spreading like ink in the water. Aphrodite stared at that, shook herself, and nodded as she met Nerites' eyes again.

"Let's go!" 

She wanted to know what that might be like, other people, other _gods_. How they might live, though sea gods would surely live in the sea, so it wouldn't be entirely like great Olympos, of course. It mattered little. Something to compare, to give an idea, was all she wanted right now. 

She got a little more than that, in the end, the first of which came quickly enough. As Aphrodite and Nerites raced north through the Aegean, through the bay out to open sea and northwards, she kept catching Nerites looking at her. The first two times were annoying, because he looked away before she could catch him in it, the third he was so flustered he flailed and crashed headfirst into the water, leaving Aphrodite laughing until she, too, ate water from an errant wave. The fourth she caught without Nerites noticing she saw him, and something tingled in her at that secret glance. She was very pleased for it.

Any such thoughts were discarded when they reached Nerites' home. From the outside it looked nothing more or less than a cave set into a dark, rough rockside, but even just past the first couple rocks scattered - pretty artfully, honestly - around the entrance, the stone first smoothed out, then became near mirror-polished. There was a pattern of clams, barnacles and other molluscs on one wall, turning out to be a map of the Aegean, and on the other something Aphrodite knew, deep in her ichor, in the slow, cosmic pulse of her essence, to be the solar system. She touched each wall once before she let Nerites take her down the corridor the cave made, and at the end of it they walked up steps that became marble as the water fell away.

The room beyond could have been any palace's entrance courtyard, vast and polished, with a mosaic of frolicking dolphins and hippocampi on the floor and columns gilded along their lengths and with painted fish and waves as the capitals. Delighted at what she was seeing, Aphrodite stepped into the courtyard with all the confident ease of belonging - because how could she not? She was one of the Deathless Ones, what honours was she not afforded, even if she had no concrete charge yet? That she would get them was a foregone conclusion; Aphrodite could feel it in her essence, the weight of her. It was a matter of when, not if, and so she was more worthy of this place than this place was worthy of her, rich as it was.

Nerites led her through the underwater palace with quick ease, leading her on almost running in his eagerness. They came to a room with a hearth and gleaming with pearls and gold, and his smile when he saw his parents and sister had Aphrodite faltering a little, hand to her chest.

"Mother, Father! Look what I found!" Nerites gestured to Aphrodite, who stepped forward as if she hadn't fallen back a step behind her and hadn't been staring like she knew Nerites had been staring at _her_ earlier. She hoped no one had noticed that, it was a little embarrassing! As she stepped forth, he old man of the sea, looking truly old though his children were in the sweet bloom of youth, stood up from his chair.

"So that's what happened," he said with a wry chuckle, shaking his head and setting the long locks of gray hair and beard, full and radiant despite his apparent age, rippling like waves. "Greetings, daughter of Ouranos. Feel welcome and take a seat."

A little cautiously at first, Aphrodite drew closer to the hearth. Halfway there, her steps turned sure, and she sat down with liquid grace - and still was brought up short for a moment, staring in startled confusion at the deep cup she was offered by Doris. It was filled to the brim with a shimmering rose-gold liquid that was, of course, familiar to her. It was also entirely _un_ familiar, looking and smelling as it did. Nectar, yes, but Aphrodite had not touched it in such a form; she hadn't known it was possible, since the raw form of nectar and ambrosia was created between her and the world, air and water and skin, without any effort and was taken the same way. It was less need than want tied to it. Hunger and thirst weren't things the Deathless Ones knew. Because of that, Aphrodite sat there, taking the cup only belatedly. Tipped it from side to side carefully, and then raised it for an experimental sip.

She almost moaned aloud at the taste of the nectar, the richness of it as she swallowed, and oh. Certainly there was reason to eat and drink, if nectar and ambrosia could be made into _this_. It was also another reason to, eventually, rise from the sea and take her place above.

"Never tasted prepared nectar, I see," Doris said with a kind chuckle, offering a golden, nut-covered cookie strewn with glittering salt flakes on top, "try this, then, child."

Eager now, Aphrodite put the cup down at her feet and took the cookie, biting into it with gusto. Nuts, she decided, wasn't something she was terribly fond of, but the taste of the cookie as a whole, the feel of it in her mouth---

"This is delicious!" Aphrodite had to restrain herself so she didn't bounce in her seat, and the cookie was gone in another two bites. "Could I have some more?"

She looked up to Doris, who smiled, which made the faint trace of wrinkles at the corner of her eyes and from her nose carve their patterns deeper into her skin, warming it up, giving it a beauty different from the smoothness of youth. On impulse, Aphrodite reached a hand out and touched the back of the goddess' hand where it lay on her lap. Doris turned her hand around and lightly clasped Aphrodite’s own.

"Of course. We wouldn't let a guest leave us unsatisfied." By the wink, Doris was both joking, as well as not. Guests were a serious matter. She looked over towards another door than the one Nerites and Aphrodite had come through, stretching her hand out. "Amphitrite, my sweet heart, come over here. No need to hide."

With Amphitrite - tall, dark and slender, her eyes like the most deepest of watery abysses - came more food as well as Nerites coming over to sit down as well. The noise rising up as conversation swelled between the members of the little family, so different from the screaming of sea birds, filled the room with bright echoes. Aphrodite found she rather liked it.

Other things she liked; spending time with both Amphitrite and Nerites, though she found herself more often alone with Nerites than the opposite configuration, though there was no specific reason as to why, really. Was there? It was a thought that was turned over and over, Aphrodite comparing the two siblings and simply finding them incomparable for all that they certainly were siblings. Amphitrite's skin was soft, and Aphrodite liked to touch it, but Nerites looking her way could set her heart skipping. She also knew she could make him light up terribly red by throwing her hair over her shoulder or smile.

It became very obvious what she wanted, Aphrodite realized, when she came to Nereus' and Doris' palace for a visit much later and found two more gods present. 

It was a surprise, since neither Nerites nor Amphitrite had mentioned anything of any visits, so it must have been unknown to them too. Aphrodite lingered in the doorway, watching as the radiant woman leaning over Doris touched her swelling stomach. She looked a little younger than Doris did and was yet clearly the elder; the sense of her essence, the great weight of her presence gave her clear seniority. There was a similarity between them too, and though Aphrodite wasn't precisely or immediately sure who she might otherwise be, it was clear to her the goddess was Doris' mother. It was of brief concern; Aphrodite was far more interested in the hands on Doris' stomach, for that was why she'd been visiting more often as well, aside from taking advantage of the generous offerings of nectar and ambrosia. The stirrings of new life was drawing her in some deep way, leaving her delighted every time she caught sight of the pregnant sea goddess.

"Children, my daughter!" The elder goddess straightened up, clapping her hands together, and Aphrodite wondered over the tension in the smile. She was clearly genuinely happy for her daughter, but that wasn't all there was to it. "I hope you're ready, after only having two."

Doris laughed, tipping her head up to look from her mother to Nereus as he approached with another man - god, of course - who, like the elder goddess, looked younger than Nereus and Doris but were clearly the elder of them. "I think we are indeed ready, aren't we, my darling?"

She reached a slim, weathered hand out, the lines on the skin like a pattern of shifting water, and Nereus took it and leaned down, kissing her. A jolt went through Aphrodite, and she clapped a hand to her chest. 

That was it. 

One of the things she wanted to do. _Obviously_. How ridiculous was she? This required examination - with both Nerites and Amphitrite!

"Aphrodite?" Nereus asked, turning away from his wife to look past the gods in the hall to the doorway.

"Ah---!" Smiling, sheepish at being caught but hardly embarrassed, she stepped out of the doorway and half twisted in a greeting for the four elder deities in the room. "Sorry! I didn't know you would be entertaining other guests today."

"An unexpected but welcome visit, but that doesn't mean you aren't welcome still, of course," Doris said, holding her hand out in welcome, and Aphrodite drifted over, echoing the other goddess by laying one hand on Doris' swelling stomach, wrapping her other around the hand Doris had offered her. There was life, new and unique, being harboured under the thin shield of Doris’ stomach, sprung from Nereus and Doris. It filled Aphrodite with light, feeling it so close under her hand. She couldn’t let herself be distracted, though, and so Aphrodite turned around, looking to the two elder gods with a hand over her center as she made a more proper greeting.

"Oceanus, Tethys, this is Aphrodite." Nereus' hand was large and warm on Aphrodite's slim shoulder, and she smiled up at the two, the names having explained it all to her. She knew who they were, aside from being Doris' parents.

"You are just about ready, aren't you," Tethys said, her stare weighted, and Aphrodite straightened up, nodding firmly.

"Not _quite_ yet, but soon!" She looked between Doris and Nereus to Oceanus and Tethys and tipped her head. "Do you wish for more children as well?"

Blunt. Too blunt, even if it was a true question. Aphrodite realized it a moment too late, but refused to blush even as Oceanus cleared his throat and Doris sighed. Tethys frowned, then, her lips pressed thin, nodded.

"We have a number of children already, of course, but we wish for more."

And they hadn't been able to produce any in a while, that was clear. A while that was certainly strange when it came to the Deathless Ones, especially those who'd had much luck in mixing their essences before. Aphrodite hesitated, for what could she do that Oceanus and Tethys hadn’t already tried? Except, with that certainty of knowledge of who she was, what her rights were, where she would go, Aphrodite knew this to be a simple matter. Or, a simple matter for her, anyway, something she could do something about. This time, though, she didn't blurt her question out immediately or surge forward, no matter the eagerness in her limbs. She yoked herself as carefully as a seasoned farmer yokes his best animals for ploughing, knowing which of them to choose from years of experience.

"I could help," she said, turning her sweet face up to them, and though her words were measured, she was still rather vibrating with the need to be given leave. On the other hand, some tiny part of her wondered, why wait? They wanted children, and she knew she could help! But she stood still until Tethys' forbidding face softened a little, and she and Oceanus glanced to each other.

"You aren't too young for your powers, certainly," Tethys said, and though she sounded doubtful, she gestured Aphrodite closer.

Aphrodite, given leave, did not leap forward. She was tempted to, had to leash her limbs firmly to walk across the shining mosaic under her feet with surety and grace. Dignity, now that she had been given what she wanted. Dignity and restraint to prove she knew what she was talking about, knew she was right to offer her help. Much like she'd done to Doris, Aphrodite laid her hands on Tethys' flat stomach, closed her eyes and stood there, a little furrow between her brows. Finally, she bounced on her feet - couldn't quite help herself this time - boosted herself up on tiptoe, and Tethys leaned down in response, allowing Aphrodite to kiss her cheek.

"How many children do you want?" Aphrodite asked, trying not to giggle, trying not to spill all the mischievous delight out around her like the sun rising. These two did have a lot left to give, she could tell that from just having touched Tethys alone. Husband and wife glanced to each other, eyebrows arched, but the dubiousness was evaporating like morning mist.

"Such things being difficult to predict when it comes to power, we have not talked about it in detail," Oceanus said, a little frown on his face but reluctantly indulgent of her question, and when he looked to Tethys again his smile was radiant. Aphrodite's heart skipped just seeing it from this end, and it wasn't even aimed at her. They should have what they wanted, looking at each other like that.

"But as many as we may," Tethys finished, and Aphrodite almost bubbled over. 

Somehow, she contained herself, going gracefully down on her feet and turning to Oceanus, hands over his abdomen and leaning up as he leaned down, and she kissed his bristly - though neatly combed and ordered, most assuredly - cheek as well. "Well, you will have that! Sometimes things get delayed a little, that's all."

Aphrodite smiled and clapped her hands, and, spying Amphitrite in the doorway, made her goodbyes and ran off, snagging the Nereid's wrist in passing. She was full of light and a buzzy, pleasant feeling, power so close to the surface after being used deliberately for the first time, and it needed out. Even if she hadn't already known what she wanted to do, she might have fumbled into it at this moment anyway.

"Aphrodite, _what_?" Amphitrite laughed, pulling on her hand but not digging her heels in and letting Aphrodite run them both through the corridors and past jewel-toned frescoes until they came to where Amphitrite's and Nerites rooms were.

"Can I kiss you, Amphitrite?" Aphrodite let go only to twirl around and grasp Amphitrite by both hands, squeezing and looking up into her eyes. Amphitrite had grown quite a bit even in the short time she'd known her, and though Aphrodite certainly had as well, it was by far not as much. She didn't think she'd mind being short, if that was how she grew. Or didn't grow, as it were. "I'd like to kiss you."

"You would..." Amphitrite stared, turned delightfully pink, and then clapped her hands down on Aphrodite's shoulders. " _Yes_."

Giggling at the attempted restraint but hearing the nearly vibrating intensity in Amphitrite's voice, Aphrodite leaned in, a hand to Amphitrite's cheek and the other on her waist. 

It was a slow, soft thing at first. Exploratory in its creeping slide of lips against lips while Aphrodite's hand crept from Amphitrite's cheek to the back of her head, burrowing into her blue-black hair. A peek of her tongue against Amphitrite's lips had both young goddesses shudder, but as Aphrodite leaned in, Amphitrite pulled back, bright red in the face and breath shuddering.

"That was--- um. Yes." Amphitrite nodded, wet her shiny lips some more, and though that just made Aphrodite want to lean in again, she could tell that wouldn't be what Amphitrite wanted, either at all or right now. Maybe she was just shy, maybe it was too quickly, or didn't just yet like the feelings that was squirming in her stomach, if they were anything like had begun to glow in Aphrodite's. That was fine. She could have tried to convince her friend, but there was someone else she wanted to kiss as well. She had no need to pause to explore this more with Amphitrite when she clearly wasn’t ready just yet. Whipping around, Aphrodite smiled brightly as she spotted Nerites trying to hide in the doorway to his room.

"Nerites! Come here!" Waving him over, Aphrodite smiled at him with all the shining weight of her burgeoning emotions and realizations, and watched him go redder than usual. He was so sweet. Even so, he stepped up with bright-eyed interest and arched an eyebrow.

"Me too?"

"You too, _absolutely_ , you silly shrimp!"

This time, Aphrodite knew more precisely what she was doing, but she didn't hurry past that curious, exploratory near-caress of their lips. Partially because she worried if she did, Nerites would pull away like Amphitrite had. Partially worried he would anyway, and she would be more upset about that than when Amphitrite had done so. The anxiety almost robbed the kiss of its tingling excitement, but when she peeked her tongue forward all Nerites did after a brief pause was hold her closer, and, if a little slowly as she saw him blush darker again past her lowered lashed, open his mouth.

That was it.

This was just as much of a revelation as the understanding of what she wanted had been, as the kiss with Amphitrite had, too, been. She would most certainly enjoy kissing Amphitrite - or other girls - again, and more besides, but _this_ was a brewing storm in her veins, in her nerves, growing with each sliding stroke and press of lips. She wanted more, but for now this would do, and when they pulled away, Nerites flushed and wide-eyed, Aphrodite was almost literally glowing.

There was so much she understood, now. There was more, of course, that was undeniable, but she'd know it in time.

Time she was less and less patiently waiting for as the three went back to how things had been before, with the adjustment of Amphitrite leaving Nerites and Aphrodite alone a little more often with good-natured exasperation for when they couldn't hold in the need to kiss each other. Each one was just as delightful as the first, but Aphrodite knew there was more - she also knew there was so much more out of the sea, and so, finally, she decided it was time to leave.

Not that it was that simple, to just leave. She'd need to find a place to go onto land on, and it couldn't be _any_ old place. She also didn't want to go alone. She wanted Nerites with her. He would look stunning among the shining halls and silver air of Mount Olympos, Aphrodite knew. So when she felt ready, she asked Nerites to come with her to Kythera, since that seemed like the best spot to begin this new journey.

Asking him to come with her did not at all go how she had imagined it would.

"Go with you?" Nerites repeated, a frown - thoughtful, his pale, brilliant eyes going distant - marring his face, like an opposite of that cute, scrunched expression he did sometimes.

"To Olympos, yes!" Aphrodite smiled brightly, bobbing in the otherwise calm water, for she was quite unable to stay still. In the distance, the island she'd been born outside shimmered in the light. It was a lovely spring day, and perfect for the journey she - they - were about to make. Spring was certainly the best season for journeys, and for her in particular.

"I'm flattered, but Aphrodite, I'm satisfied with what I have here." Nerites shook his head, focusing back on her, his graceful sweet face earnest but firm. Aphrodite froze in the middle of twining a lock of hair around her fingers. "Besides, I don't want to leave my parents or Amphitrite, especially not so soon. And I'm getting more siblings soon!" 

He smiled so sweetly, and once that bright delight would've soothed her. Now, it just made her angry.

" _Stay here_ , then!" Aphrodite yelled, filled up with a boiling burst of fury that bubbled over. Nerites' wide, wide eyes, pale as the sky above, was a fitting tribute to her fury but did little to stop her from lashing out.

Leaving the transformed Nerites behind her, Aphrodite dashed angrily through the waves, away, away, just _away_ from that terrible humiliation. 

She almost entirely forgot for a time what she'd been intending to do before Nerites had so thoroughly derailed and dismissed her, but as she calmed and wiped her face with a last sniffle, her earlier excitement came back. She was going ashore and up to Olympos, with or without Nerites, for that was her right and proper place. She still needed a place to do so by; she couldn't choose just any old island to go ashore at, for the island had to be as worthy of her as she was worthy of a place among the Deathless Ones on Olympos. Nodding firmly to herself, she slowed from her furious skimming of the waves and sunk among the froth, letting it carry her so she could focus on inspecting the islands she passed.

None seemed suitable, and Aphrodite slowly drifted further and further away from the island she'd been born nearby, through the waters she'd been playing in, both by herself and with Nerites and Amphitrite. It wasn't that many weren't lovely islands, because they most certainly were, but none seemed quite right. This was an important choice; the island she stepped foot on first would be _hers_ , after all, and she wanted it to be perfect. She might, however, be forced to turn westward if this continued; the sea wasn't endless, and she would end up hitting the eastern coast sooner than she liked. If she had to, she would, but the Aegean was home in a way the eastern waters of the sea was not. She would thus rather it be around here, for she would not settle! She was a daughter of great Ouranos and nurtured by this very ocean, and she deserved nothing less than a jewel set among the strings of pearls she wore.

As she floated, waves obediently pushing her along and giving her a frothy pillow to rest upon as she conducted her inspection, Aphrodite gained an entourage of fish and dolphins, playing in her wake and sometime preceding her, with seabirds dancing above, diving into the ocean to snatch an unfortunate fish here and there, and Aphrodite laughed, amused at the sight. 

As she drew close to yet another island, there was a bird that looked quite strange around the outskirts of her loud-voiced choir of feathered escorts. It must have come from the nearby island. Curious, she stretched a hand out, and the bird came to her even though the others had been trying to keep it away. It landed on her offered hand with a lovely little coo, and as Aphrodite shielded the rounded body from the surrounding spray, she thought it a quite marvelous bird. Glancing up, she turned closer to the island it'd come from, circled it with more intent than she had most of the other islands, and liked what she saw. 

Yes. This one.

It was large, which was what was due her - she would have considered Crete, but that island had been claimed by others, and Zeus would not wish to share his birthplace with her, she didn't think. She didn't like the thought of sharing either, anyway. More than just the size and shape of the island, the impressive thrust of mountains towards the sky delighted her. Both mountain ranges reminded her of great waves, frozen at their highest, most terrible fury in a winter storm that lashed the gray sea, threatening to crash down in full glory. The great wooded swathes she could see from riding around the coast fascinated her, for it was so very different from the ocean, both above and below. It was perfect.

A beach offered a place for Aphrodite to set foot on her island, and she steered towards it, filled with a bubbly success. The water was a rough dance of waves around the rocks decorating the shore, and upon the shore itself rushed Aphrodite in full frothy glory, letting her set her feet down upon the shore and step up on land. The water left her only reluctantly, but the dove cooed again, ruffling its feathers, and Aphrodite, laughing, raised her hands to the sky and let it fly.

That was when she noticed the three young women, in appearance a handful of years her elder, sitting further up on the beach, beyond the line where sand turned to grass and blooming shrubs. Appearance was of course as much absolute truth as it obscured it, when it came to the immortal gods, for those three were at the very least nymphs.

"Oh." Feeling a swelling of disappointment, Aphrodite took breath, wondering what she had to do to chase these nymphs off. They might not be mortal, but that didn't make her any more sweetly minded towards them. Rather less so. Her easy smile was gone again, and she tightened her hands into fists as the three lovely young women, dark-haired and bright-eyed, rose up and trooped towards her. They paused a short distance away, and though there was no obvious conversation between them, only one, the shortest and most sweetest-looking approached her first, face alight with curiosity.

"Greetings!" She seemed about to nearly vibrate, the slim little thing, being only a little taller than Aphrodite, and Aphrodite almost felt some hesitation over what she would have to do. But this was _her_ island, and she would not give it up! "We're really pleased to have chosen sea-girt Kypros by chance for today, to get to see such a sight alight on its shores. You're intending to join the Deathless Ones on Olympos, aren't you? In that case, let us be the first to welcome you!"

The girl was doing her best to present herself with grace and gravitas, but her excitement was clear as she clasped her hands to her chest. The earnestness of the greeting soothed Aphrodite some, but she wasn’t willing to back down yet. Too, though, Aphrodite was starting to doubt this girl and her sisters were just nymphs, which was it’s own complication. They might be even more than those goddess-nymphs that were daughters of great Titans, honestly, for now that she was closer she could feel the hidden depths, glowing like stars and scintillating about her, that she, and the other two surely, carried. It might not have stopped Aphrodite in the end, but some of the young goddess' words made her pause.

"This isn't an island you claim?" It was a little rude, perhaps, but Aphrodite didn't much care. The short goddess - who seemed a little younger than she clearly was by her charming disposition and slight build, opened her mouth, but her tallest sister, stately though just as slim as the other, came forward. She shook her head and shed blooms like a petaled path behind her from the flower crown she wore.

"Even if it were, it's clear to anyone that it should fall to you, goddess." She eyed Aphrodite, and Aphrodite was nearly shamed into looking away for the knowledge in those gray-blue eyes. Where the sweet slip that'd greeted Aphrodite first had missed the potential danger, this sister hadn't. "But we are only here to enjoy the sea-salt winds and the sound of water against the rocks, as well as Kypros’ lovely flowers. I'm Dike, this is Eirene, and the last of us is Eunomia. We are daughters of great Zeus and radiant Themis, king and queen of Olympos."

Oh. A very good thing she hadn't had the chance to do anything. Not that Aphrodite feared the rulers of Olympos, as such, but it would be rude and would set things off to a bad start, certainly. Worse of one than if she tried to return to Nereus and Doris’ palace any time soon. Not willing to consider what she’d done to Nerites, or consider Nerites himself yet, lest her mood darken further, Aphrodite straightened up as much as she was able. 

Her mood now lightening with the certainty that this island would still be, was now, hers, Aphrodite smiled with the return of her usual sweet humour, a hand to her chest and intent to match the at least attempted gravitas the others had projected. "I am Aphrodite, daughter of Ouranos after he fell, and the great ocean has nourished me until it was time for me to leave it. I am intending to ascend to Olympos from here, yes."

She almost ruined the presented image by wishing to bounce in place, and it didn't get better by the three sisters looking between each other and then clapping their hands, clearly excited.

"Let us help prepare you for your introduction, then! It'd only be proper that you should be girt with loveliness to match both your essence and beauty," Eunomia said, her voice nearly dancing, and Aphrodite, curious and pleased for the fuss that implied, fuss that was most certainly due her, laughed and clapped her hands as well.

"Oh, yes! Please." Aphrodite had little idea of what they intended to help prepare her, but she figured it wouldn't be difficult to just leave if she didn't like it. 

Eirene and Eunomia took her by the hands and led her up the beach, further inland onto the grass, which was yet soft and cautiously green under their feet thanks to being spring and close, yet, to the quenching presence of the winter rains. There was the suggestion of summer yellowing already in presence, though, but none of the girls heeded that as Eirene, when they found a flat, clear spot ringed with flowers, leaned down to touch the ground and fresh, clear water spilled up, as if it'd merely been waiting under the surface to offer its cool sweetness. Dike called a nymph to them from the nearby trees and sent her off to get clothes and jewellery, and then a pitcher that'd clearly earlier been serving to hold drink was repurposed to hold water while the Horai helped divest Aphrodite of what little she wore.

"We'll save these for your hair and as necklaces," Eirene said as she held up the rows and rows of pearls, glancing to Aphrodite with a cocked eyebrow in implicit question. Pursing her lips, Aphrodite nodded. She liked that idea. She'd never bound her hair up before, preferring to have it free and trailing about her, as if she was wearing long vines of seaweed, rich brown kelp for fish to live in, but for this... Yes. And the pearls would surely look as lovely against her dark hair as they did against her skin.

Pitcher after pitcher was poured over her, ridding Aphrodite of the sea-salt smell and cling of crystal salt, already having started to appear like a fine lace crusting over her pale skin.

"Do you like this?" Eunomia asked as she held her hand out, fingertips glistening with a viscous and almost clear liquid. Curious, Aphrodite leaned in - Eunomia laughed, startled, when she stuck her tongue out to taste, and though it was sweet it was strangely... it clung to her tongue, thick in a way that wasn't like water at all, closer to what it looked like. "No, the _smell_!"

She would have flushed, embarrassed to have been made fun of, if it weren't for the sweet equanimity of Eunomia's tone. So instead Aphrodite hesitantly breathed in, slowly smiling before she'd even taken her full breath. "Yes."

Aphrodite looked up with an eager nod, still breathing in the flower-sweetness of the oil, that yet also smelled of something lighter, _airier_ , almost, heady but nonintrusive - it crept up on you and then revealed its full range. She liked that. She liked it _a lot_. 

Eunomia smiled, a little flush to her cheeks for Aphrodite’s excitement, and sat down to comb the oil out of her hair. Meanwhile, Eirene and Dike helped rub Aphrodite down with ambrosia now that she was clean from the generous shower of springwater. Soon, Aphrodite gleamed like a flower bedecked in dew, newly sprung and blossomed in the sweet spring air at first blush of dawn. She'd never felt so soft, and Aphrodite, though she'd been missing the crispness of the scent of the sea on her skin that still suffused the air from the closeness of the ocean, was instantly enamoured. This was how one was meant to feel, to _look_ \- a feeling only reaffirmed after the three rubbed her skin with the oil Eunomia had gathered in a little glass jar, delicate and gleaming in blues and greens in the light.

The nymph came back while Dike sat behind Aphrodite, brushing her hair. She was a sweet thing, tall for a nymph but a little shorter than Aphrodite herself, and she could barely look at the goddess newly risen from the sea without blushing, so she left her gift of clothes and gleaming gold jewellery on a soft cushion of grass, and quickly dashed back to the nearby copse of trees she'd originally come from. Aphrodite, knowing such blushes from both Nerites and Amphitrite, though this one had seemed less innocent in the way the nymph's gaze had lingered, was pleased that the sight of her should engender such a look. That was the way every- and anyone should react to her in time, most assuredly.

"Do you not like clothes?" Aphrodite couldn't help but ask, tipping her head back towards Dike behind her while Eunomia and Eirene argued about _which_ clothes the nymph had brought would best suit her, in that comfortable, playfully aggressive sort of way that revealed the two young goddesses were having fun while also being terribly serious about it. Dike pressed her lips together, looking away, then back down at Aphrodite's upturned face, and something in it made Aphrodite deeply displeased. "I couldn't see why it would be bad, if you didn't, but I was just wondering. Since you're letting them talk about it without you."

That she wasn't included, Aphrodite didn't mind. If she truly didn't like the look when they were finished, she'd say so, but she was enjoying the clear attentive care taken. Dike blinked, then bit her bottom lip again, but some of the tension eased in her shoulders.

"I just don't care as much," she said with a shrug and started to part Aphrodite's thick, soft and shining dark brown hair into sections for braiding, "and it's better to leave those two to talk it out until they're done."

Aphrodite laughed until she was pink in the face, since _talking it out_ wasn't exactly what the two were doing. Dike's smile was a sweet secret between them, and both goddesses looked up to Dike's sisters with innocent expressions when questioned about what was so terribly funny.

In the end, Eunomia and Eirene came to agreement and came back to help Dike braid, pile and twist Aphrodite's mass of locks, softly wavy from head down to her knees as it was. Perhaps she'd cut it later, she wasn't sure how it would be to have all this hair on land, but for now she wouldn't be hasty about it. Rows of pearls were woven into the braids and helped to keep the partitioned piles of hair into proud sections, like fenced-in grazing meadows and equally as shining full of fertile greenery and earth. Golden earrings of flowers and clusters of emerald were hung in Aphrodite's ears, to match the piles of bracelets, both solid gold and of beads made of precious gems, cut or smoothed into round softness, on her arms. A short robe, tight about her body and the hems of the sleeves clinging to her elbows but leaving her chest uncovered for the rows of necklaces decorating the swoop of her neck and the shining glory of her ambrosia-rubbed chest, was wrapped around Aphrodite's trim body and belted into place. A couple skirts wrapped around her waist, then a third skirt, tiered and flounced in the most marvelous way, was added last.

Smiling, Aphrodite couldn't help but clap her hands and bounce a little, watching the flounces move with her. Delighted, she took a couple dancing leaps and enjoyed the swaying weight of the skirts about her, the jingling of the bracelets and necklaces.

"It's _perfect_! Thank you!" Twirling around, Aphrodite came to a stop, facing the three Horai, and the shyly pleased smiles and accomplished light in their eyes had the young goddess come over to kiss each of their cheeks, though she had to rise up on tip-toe for all but Eirene.

"Let us go to Olympos then, dearest Kypris, so you may take your rightful place among the deathless gods." Dike smiled and offered her hand, which Aphrodite took with more collected grace than the bright bubble of emotion inside her chest might imply.

And so laughter-loving Aphrodite, great goddess, took her place on Olympos.


End file.
